Richard Buckle

Christopher Richard Sandford Buckle, CBE, better known as Richard Buckle (6 August 1916 – 12 October 2001), was a lifelong devotee of ballet, and a well-known ballet critic. He founded the magazine Ballet in 1939, and revived it after the war (during which he served with the Scots Guards, being mentioned in despatches in 1944 during the Italy campaign). Between 1948 and 1955 he was ballet critic for The Observer. He organised a number of highly successful exhibitions, including most notably one in 1954 on the life and work of Diaghilev, first at the Edinburgh Festival and then at Forbes House in London. He also organised the quatercentenary Shakespeare exhibition at Stratford-upon-Avon in 1964-5. His publications include the most comprehensive biographies of Nijinsky (1971) and Diaghilev (1979), and he edited several books, including the autobiography of Lydia Sokolova and the selected diaries of Cecil Beaton. Richard Buckle was appointed CBE in 1979.

Selected writing

• Ballet, Ballet Publications Ltd (magazine 1939-1952)
• Diaghilev, Atheneum (paperback 1984), ISBN 0-689-70664-2
• Nijinsky, Avon Books (paperback 1975), ISBN 0-380-00459-3
• Buckle at the Ballet: Selected Criticism, Dance Books (1980), ISBN 0-903102-53-6 reviewed in New York Times, August 21, 1981
• The Most Upsetting Woman (Autobiography 1), Collins (1981), ISBN 0-00-216326-8
• In the Wake of Diaghilev (Autobiography 2), Collins (1982), ISBN 0-00-2165449

External links

• Obituary, Richard Buckle, the ballet critic, author and exhibition organiser has died aged 85, The Telegraph, October 19, 2001
• Obituary, Ballet critic who revolutionised exhibition design and wrote biographies of Diaghilev and Nijinsky, The Guardian, October 13, 2001